McMahon Stadium turns into a proving ground on Friday night

Plenty of Stamps with lots to show to the team’s coaching staff

Jonathan Williams has dreamt of a return to football after paying the bills by cutting grass for the city of Greenville, N.C.

Photograph by: Gavin Young
, Calgary Herald

Stevie Baggs envisioned this moment while running the McMahon Stadium stairs — his legs shaking like Jell-O, ready to betray him — in wicked westerly winds.

Anthony Parker visualized this moment during countless physiotherapy sessions and gym workouts designed to repair his wounded body and reboot for another football season.

Tailback Jonathan Williams pictured this moment while cutting grass and trimming trees for the City of Greenville, N.C. as a landscaper with dreams of returning to professional football.

Three different men, three different paths that converge tonight under the lights as the Calgary Stampeders host the B.C. Lions in Canadian Football League exhibition action at McMahon Stadium.

“I’ve been working hard, and I’ve been doing this my whole life,” said Williams, who is battling for playing time with Jon Cornish, Matt Walter, and LaMarcus Coker. “I just want to go out there and showcase my talent and do my thing.

“Do what I do.

Some people may see exhibition games as meaningless exercise with nothing in the way of points on the line. But don’t go telling that to the guys fighting for jobs in a sport where longevity seems rarer than consecutive days of sunshine in Calgary in June.

“I envision coming off the edge and making a play on the quarterback,” Baggs says, his eyes closed as he pictures the likes of Travis Lulay pancaked on the artificial turf. “I’m excited to finally get back out there and show what I can do.”

In college, Baggs earned the nickname of Shakespeare, because he was “always making plays.”

A theatrical sort, Baggs sees the pre-season as a chance to prove to head coach/general manager John Hufnagel that he still belongs in a leading role on the opposite edge from Charleston Hughes.

“The body feels great,” said Baggs, who played just one game for Calgary in 2012 due to a quadriceps injury suffered in Baltimore Ravens training camp. “You just want to do exactly what the coach wants, so he knows he can trust you.”

Boiled down to one word, trust is the main reason some of these guys will stick in Calgary and others will pack up for home on the weekend with their football careers in turmoil.

With the smaller rosters in the CFL, coaches can’t afford to keep guys around with talent but little in the way of grey matter between the ears.

“Know what you’re doing on the field,” Hufnagel said, in offering advice to his charges. “Don’t allow the mistakes to take away from your physical talents.

“That’s what you’re looking for. You’re looking for players who can learn and put that learning into action when the lights come on. Sure I want them to play hard, with great effort, with great courage, but I need them to be doing what they need to be doing.

“Or it’s a fiasco.”

Entering his third season, Parker planned to study the playbook Thursday night before falling asleep and spending most of Friday relaxing and chilling out.

“I haven’t been making too many mistakes, so I just want to make sure I’m not out there over-thinking things,” Parker says. “At the end of the day, I’m really a hard critic on myself and making sure I’m getting my assignments down and all that kind of stuff.

“So as long as I’m doing my part of it, the rest will take care of itself.”

At some point tonight, Baggs look up to the stands where he climbed all those stairs over the winter in preparation for this very moment,

Kickoff is finally upon us.

Time to soak it all in.

“It’s just good to be out here and healthy and ready to get into a real game with the stands filled and the lights on,” Parker said. “So I’m very, very excited.”

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